Banner Elk, NC, 2015

Cannon Hospital had been abandoned since 1999, left to rot after asbestos was discovered within its walls. In 2015, my friend Eric and I gained access through a neighbor of the property owner; the owner himself accompanied us. The air was thick with dust, the silence broken only by our footsteps echoing down decaying corridors. The local police swung by to check on us, adding a strange sense of permission to our exploration. For hours, we photographed peeling paint, shattered glass, abandoned stuffed animals…gurneys…newborn pamphlets and the remnants of a life frozen in neglect. Shadows lurked in every corner, sunlight slicing through broken windows like spotlights on a forgotten stage. Walking those hallways felt like drifting through a dream, or a memory someone else had abandoned.